Spa EF Open: Aitken beats Pulcini in epic duel to win race one

Aitken started the race from fourth on the grid, which effectively became third as Diego Menchaca failed to start the race due to technical reasons.

The British driver passed Ferdinand Habsburg while braking into Les Combes on Lap 2, with Tanart Sathienthirakul following his teammate to jump into third position.

Aitken then started reeling in polesitter Pulcini, making a brave move at Bruxelles on Lap 4 to move into the lead.

The two drivers, however, continued to trade positions over the next few laps until Aitken made a decisive move on Lap 6 at Les Combes, sealing his second victory of the season.

Behind, Habsburg repassed Sathienthirakul to claim the final spot on the podium, with the latter finishing a tenth of a second behind in fourth place.

Damiano Fioravanti was classified fifth ahead of Carlin’s Colton Herta, who himself was engaged in a lengthy battle with Igor Walilko.

Further back, Diego Menchaca finished in eighth place, with Keyvan Andres and Enaam Ahmed completing the top 10.

The race was brought under safety car conditions when Nikita Zlobin’s car rolled over at the Kemmel Straight on lap 2. The Russian escaped unscathed from the incident, but his car was heavily damaged.

Antoni Ptak also retired from the race, after being squeezed by two rival drivers on the run down to Les Combes.

Race 1 results:

Pos	Driver	Team	Time/Gap
1	Jack Aitken	RP Motorsport	35'54.749
2	Leonardo Pulcini	Campos	4.745
3	Ferdinand Habsburg	Drivex School	6.042
4	Tanart Sathienthirakul	RP Motorsport	6.157
5	Damiano Fioravanti	RP Motorsport	8.012
6	Colton Herta	Carlin	10.432
7	Igor Walilko	Fortec	10.986
8	Diego Menchaca	Campos	16.934
9	Keyvan Soori	Carlin	23.698
10	Enaam Ahmed	DAV Racing	24.685
11	Danylo Pronenko	BVM Racing	29.839
12	Petru Florescu	Teo Marting Racing	30.342
13	Tatiana Calderón	Teo Marting Racing	30.587
14	Kang Ling	DAV Racing	31.070
15	Ameya Vaidyanathan	Carlin	43.701
16	Gulhuseyn Abdullayev	Campos	56.198
17	Liang Jia Tong	Team West Tec	1'28.399
18	Kusiri Kantadhee	RP Motorsport
Ret	Julio Moreno	Campos
Ret	Jose Manuel Vilalta	Teo Marting Racing
Ret	Daniele Cazzaniga	DAV Racing
Ret	Antoni Ptak	RP Motorsport
Ret	Nikita Zlobin	Teo Marting Racing